Polio hits Equatorial Guinea, threatens Central Africa

After being free of polio for nearly 15 years, Equatorial Guinea has reported two cases of the disease. The children paralyzed are in two distant parts of the country. So the virus may have spread widely across the small nation.

The outbreak is dangerous, in part, because Equatorial Guinea has the worst polio vaccination rate in the world: 39 percent. Even Somalia, teetering on the brink of anarchy, vaccinates 47 percent of its children.

The Equatorial Guinea outbreak can be traced to neighboring Cameroon, where seven children have been paralyzed by polio since October.

"This is actually an outbreak from Cameroon that has been ongoing and has spread," says Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the WHO's polio eradication initiative in Geneva. Efforts to contain the Cameroon outbreak, he says, have fallen flat.

Controlling the disease in Equatorial Guinea will also be challenging. One of the current polio cases is in the capital, Malabo, located on an island off the country's Atlantic coast. The other is more than 100 miles away on the mainland, adjacent to Cameroon.

The disease could spread even further, to the troubled Central African Republic. The country has been rocked by violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. And hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Polio thrives in areas with this type of social unrest.

After being free of polio for nearly 15 years, Equatorial Guinea has reported two cases of the disease. The children paralyzed are in two distant parts of the country. So the virus may have spread widely across the small nation.

The outbreak is dangerous, in part, because Equatorial Guinea has the worst polio vaccination rate in the world: 39 percent. Even Somalia, teetering on the brink of anarchy, vaccinates 47 percent of its children.

The Equatorial Guinea outbreak can be traced to neighboring Cameroon, where seven children have been paralyzed by polio since October.

"This is actually an outbreak from Cameroon that has been ongoing and has spread," says Oliver Rosenbauer, a spokesman for the WHO's polio eradication initiative in Geneva. Efforts to contain the Cameroon outbreak, he says, have fallen flat.

Controlling the disease in Equatorial Guinea will also be challenging. One of the current polio cases is in the capital, Malabo, located on an island off the country's Atlantic coast. The other is more than 100 miles away on the mainland, adjacent to Cameroon.

The disease could spread even further, to the troubled Central African Republic. The country has been rocked by violent clashes between Christians and Muslims. And hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Polio thrives in areas with this type of social unrest.